Ron Washington was no exception, particularly when it came to Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. Washington said he believed both pitcher Yu Darvish and Beltre belonged on the AL All-Star team.

“If they don’t take Beltre, it’s a farce,” Washington said. “To play under the conditions he’s had to play and do what he’s done, he absolutely belongs.”

It is assumed Darvish will be among the starters selected. Beltre, a three-time All-Star, has a trickier path despite entering Saturday second in the AL in hitting at .336. Beltre has only 10 homers and 45 RBIs. Both lead the Rangers, but are below several other third basemen.

He is likely to finish second in the fan voting to Oakland’s Josh Donaldson. That means he’d have to either win or finish second in the player-voting that was conducted over the last two weeks to assure himself of a place on the roster.

Donaldson had a lead of 1.2 million votes in the last fan-voting update. If the players and coaches looked at some of the old-standard categories, like homers and RBIs, Beltre might fall below Seattle’s Kyle Seager (13 homers, 59 RBIS) or Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria (11 homers). Beltre has a significant lead on both in on-base plus slugging (OPS) at .898 compared to .851 for Seager and .745 for Longoria.

Beltre ranks third among AL third baseman in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), the stat that tries to gauge a player’s overall worth. Donaldson (3.5) is followed closely by Seager (3.4) and then Beltre (2.4). Longoria is at 2.2.

Editor Picks

Comments

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.